While We're Young

It’s a lot easier to convey the broad-brush satirical flourishes of While We’re Young than to explain the subtler and sometimes darker threads of meaning that run through it.

While a truly original comedy, While We're Young is the rare one that also laces rich thematic elements with wonderfully drawn characters to create a picture that's as genuinely hilarious as it is thoughtful about how hopes, ambitions, dreams and ideals of personal and creative accomplishments that ebb and flow across decades.

While We're Young is a clear-eyed satire of intergenerational tension that derives much of its comedy from a series of moments in which its mid-forties couple attempt to mesh with a younger crowder.

Baumbach is never likely to make a film that doesn't engage with interesting issue, but on this occasion he's made something smart and relevant that really brings the funny, arguably making this his most widely appealing film to date.

As Cornelia's revered documentary filmmaker father, a crusty truth-teller in the Frederick Wiseman mold, Charles Grodin provides a master class in minimalism.

Baumbach is 45 (roughly the same age as Josh) so he writes from personal experience. He knows what these characters are feeling which is the reason why the human elements resonate with authenticity - a quality that fades when While We're Young wanders off on the tangent about what constitutes a legitimate documentary.

Youth may be wasted on the young in this muddled movie. But age is equally wasted on the aging.

you're an old man with a hat.. While We're Young As Ben and Naomi struggles keeping up with the people of their age, there is an unsatisfied tone from the first sequence of the movie which stays with the audience the whole way and surprisingly this helps connecting it. While We're Young is one of the finest fresh baked idea coming from Noah and he uses it well depicting generations through a common media and its amusing perspectives that offers us these little chuckles in this smart drama. The resemblance towards Ben's character speaks itself of his work along with such a great cast; Naomi and Adam are brilliant too. A light drama which does not work on a larger margin to make your heart pump faster but it sure is intriguing enough to keep you invested in it for 97 minutes.

It's...okay? I expected more from this one considering the talent involved. All I ended up getting, though, was a passable film that barely held my attention for the entire runtime.

Baumbach does Woody. A 40-something couple, documentary filmmakers, struggling with fertility and career issues, find themselves smitten by a younger couple's seemingly pure, creative life. There are some very funny moments, particularly pertaining to Josh's tedious, pretentious documentary that focuses on a Chomsky-like character. Much of the first half is predictable, but things spark up a bit as it when a conflict develops between Josh and his protege, who turns out to be more ambitious and sneaky than he seemed to be. This is not my favorite from Baumbach, but it is still worth watching.

WHILE WE'RE YOUNG is yet one more pseudo-intellectual clap trap of a film from the grossly untalented Noah Baumbach. There is not an ounce of originality or genuineness in this utterly false film that contradicts itself at every turn and is just as self-indulgent as its banal characters.

A very Woody Allen-esque rom-drom about a very "white" sub-cultural non-phenom of childless guilt. I'm a white guy and even I saw this as so white bread! How this film was greenlit for the big screen is beyond me, it's the perfect fodder for Lifetime or WE. The pace, dialogue, scenery is all so banal and boring. Even the lead character Josh says this self-aware line when conversing with hedge fund Dave (played by Ryan Serhant from "MDLNY", the primary reason I even attempted this) "As with many boring things, the longer you watch it, it takes on a different dimension." Except the longer you watch this the only different dimension you'll encounter is your own dream life (because, um, you'll fall asleep.) "The Family Guy" did a similar treatment of older couple trying to keep up with a younger couple to far greater effect and interest at a fraction of the cost. I guess films of this low caliber are made simply as a paycheck mechanism for career actors. Every film, every tv show, every song can't be a hit but they keep the ball moving forward, everyone employed.